White Message
by DoYouFindMeDreadful
Summary: Byakuran's gifts mean more to Shoichi then he'd like to admit. - Byakuran X Shoichi, Valentine's fic -


When one of the lower ranked officers announces the arrival of something from Byakuran, Shoichi tries his best not to react to the news. He'd never willingly show the excitement that bubbles up inside of him, so his facial expression always looks grim and uncertain. Surely they all believe that he dislikes the gifts, fears them even, but the truth is he can never wait to hear that something has arrived.

This time it's a few dozen bouquets of white lilac's and periwinkle's. The symbolism isn't lost on Shoichi, it never is, and Byakuran knows that. All of his gifts have meaning beyond what people normally look at it and, as he plucks one of the too white flowers from a bouquet, Shoichi can't help but blush slightly.

The lilac represents youthful innocence whereas the periwinkle represents pleasures of memory – and it's obvious what Byakuran is getting at. It's not as if either one of them could ever forget the long nights they've spent together, so why does he feel the need to remind him so blatantly?

Did he enjoy goading the fact that it had been _him_ who had taken Shoichi's virginity and not someone else? It was almost like he _wanted_ everyone to know about their relationship (as if calling him Sho-chan wasn't enough!) but glancing around the room, it was apparent that no one saw what he did when he looked at the flowers. All they comprehended was a show of affection – probably thought that Byakuran sent these sort of gifts to all his favorite subordinates – so he supposed that, as long as no one figured out the symbolic meaning of such things, he was ok with it.

Well, as ok with it as he was going to get anyway.

A few days later, another gift arrives, but this time it's in a box so no one knows what it is right away. Shoichi considers just opening it when it's first handed to him, tells himself he really could care less whats inside or if anyone else sees it, but then he reconsiders and chooses to wait until he's alone.

He's sitting in his cluttered and messy room, his head phones around his neck and blaring one song or another, when he pulls the box onto his lap and eyes it for a moment. As is typical of Byakuran, its completely white with an equally white ribbon tied around it to make it look nice. Sometimes, such as now, Shoichi wonders why he has such a fascination with the color and he's sure that in a small amount of time he's going to be very sick of it. But he shrugs it off for now, deciding that he doesn't really care, and starts to open the box.

He's only slightly surprised when he discovers that the gift is a stuffed white elephant. At first, he assumes it to be a joke, there was no way that Byakuran was sending him plush animals now as if they were actually _dating_, but after a minute or two, he decides it's not a joke. Right off the top of his head, he doesn't know what it's suppose to represent but a quick search on the Internet fixed that.

_Rare, valuable, but perhaps unwanted. _

Shoichi feels his stomach dropping into the lowest regions of his body. He's not sure why, but something about this gift, about it's meaning, leaves him uneasy. What the hell is Byakuran trying to tell him?

The next few days seem like the longest of his life. He wonders if Byakuran is going to send him something – or if he's never going to have anything to do with him again and it leaves him unfocused and a bit unsure of himself. He can't concentrate on anything and by the fourth day, others begin to notice and he's asked if he's feeling alright too many times to count. He waves them off, occasionally snapping at them because his entire body is so off, and just because of one stupid stuffed animal. As the hours stretch on, Shoichi tells himself that he hates Byakuran and for a while, he believes it.

But then, a young man hesitantly approaches him, no doubt worried about getting his head bitten off, and he's quietly informed that something has arrived for him. This leaves him jittery and a bit afraid – what if this gift is a sign that Byakuran doesn't want to be with him anymore? Would he be ok with that?

He honestly doesn't have an answer and that makes him more nervous.

But when he walks into the hanger, trailing after the officer, he nearly trips on his own feet when he sees the waves of flowers all over the place. It's like an ocean of red and white and for a moment, Shoichi is a tad blinded by the display, the particular color scheme making him slightly nauseas.

He recognizes the flower quickly enough, their all roses; white with red edges and it takes a moment for him to draw up their meaning. When he does, he can't help but smile despite the fact there are people around who can see and he really doesn't want them to know how these gifts affect him, but he can't help himself.

Unity.

Byakuran was telling him that they were together, even though he was _possibly unwanted_.

It was only when Shoichi happened to glance at a calendar did he realize the reason behind the last few gifts he'd gotten and it suddenly made sense to him. He quickly made arrangements to send something to Byakuran and he hoped that it made it in time, but even if it didn't, he supposed that was alright. As long as he got it ...

(XxXxX)

It was almost midnight when someone knocked on Byakuran's door and he had been so close to slipping into bed (he already had the blankets pulled back and everything!) that he momentarily considered ignoring it. But with a small sigh, he trudged towards the entrance of his room and slowly opened the door. He wasn't really that surprised to see Leo.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but this just arrived," He held up a decent sized box that was a dazzling array of color. With dots of every shade imaginable and a rainbow ribbon tied around it, Byakuran could only stare at it in slight wonder. Who'd have sent him something like _this_? Without being prompted, Leo answered that question. "It's from Shoichi Irie."

How puzzling ... "Thank you, Leo-kun." Taking the package, he told the young boy to go on to bed and retreated back into his room. Taking a moment to study the box, he couldn't help but wonder if this was _really_ from Sho-chan. It just didn't seem like him – but then again, it could have been his reaction to the all white gifts he always received.

Upon opening the box, Byakuran found himself chuckling warmly into the otherwise silent and empty room. Shoichi had sent him a plush white horse and, being as knowledgeable with symbolism as he was, Byakuran immediately knew what it was suppose to convey. Sho-chan really was quite clever sometimes.

"The white steed," he recited aloud from memory. "an ancient symbol of divine authority." Well, it certainly proved that the gift was, indeed, from the bespectacled man and it _did_ bring a smile to his face. "Happy Valentine's day to you too, Sho-chan ..."

(XxXxX)

FIN

I have no idea what drove me to write this, but hey, there it is. It honestly wasn't suppose to be a Valentines fic but then everything just sort of came together like that and I'm sorry if this was a bit fluffy. Also, I'd like to state that I don't know if I like this pairing very much – I'm still fairly new to it and the series as a whole, so I guess I'm on the fence about it, but theres just something that screams 'plausible'. I mean, the vibe around them just _tells_ me their banging each other fairly often so, yeah.

It _is_ a cute pairing though ... can't, won't deny it.

Also, I'm sorry if I spelled Shoichi's name wrong. On the site where I read the manga I'm pretty sure his name was written as 'Shoichiro' but on Wikipedia it was just 'Shoichi' so I decided to use that one. If it's suppose to be Shoichiro, I apologize, and if you tell me I'll fix it.

I hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day!


End file.
